You won't believe how an obscure regulator may make gas prices explode in 2020 with this one trick!

[redpoint5]

I've always thought it would be neat to combine what we do for fun to accomplish something productive. There was a game that involved protein folding for example.

[MetroMPG]

^ That was the idea behind this forum. For me, anyway!

[redpoint5]

You might have gathered my interest is in electronics/electricity since my mods center around those things. Replacing the battery with capacitors, or virtual alternator delete.

I wonder what I'll tinker with when I get an EV? It will still have a 12v battery, so I'll be modifying it, but beyond that?

My 5-year goal is to get into powered paragliding.

[MetroMPG]

Tucker Gott! I stumbled upon powered paragliding YT videos just a couple of weeks ago and have watched many. Looks very fun. (Although often also looks chilly.) Electric option appeals to me since it's somewhat quieter under power and silent when you get off the power.


Not going off-topic at all in this thread!

[redpoint5]

I was introduced to the idea of PPG from lasersaber. Originally saw his videos on supercap battery replacements, then his electric PPG, then from there I saw Tucker's videos.

I'd probably stick with petrol so I can get longer flights... I wonder what the maximum reasonable range would be with electric though? Another hobby I'd like to start someday is electric go-carting, and it would be convenient to use the same batteries for both hobbies.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Not going off-topic at all in this thread!

That's my cue!

All that I know about powered paragliding is that is why we do not see Grant Thompson anymore, but since he retired from "The King of Random," I do not see what difference it makes to the content.

I can only imagine what it is like to have passive income--or significant active income!

Oh right! This is my thread! Ha!

It always seems there are various reasons that fuel prices may skyrocket, but it seems like it would take a huge increase for people to change their habits, and then perhaps only temporarily. If ships do need to switch to low-sulfur fuel (or any of a dozen other things cause fuel prices to spike), hopefully we will start seeing more smaller cars, more fuel-saving technology, and more activity here.

Phoenix has pollution problems, but why does anyone live there anyway? The air is nice and clean here on the mountain, but I wish that we could replant the trees that burned seventeen years ago.

I wish that I could find a full-time speech job that paid decently. Back in Page I should have ridden my bike to work, I just did not want to ride it home for lunch. There are not any bike lanes around here, but so many full-sized pickups.

I would not call it bike-friendly.

[redpoint5]

If you don't see me around here anymore, you'll know why.

Also, if I have a video of my death, my instructions are to show it. Can't stand obituaries that just say someone died. The interesting part is how, because everyone dies.

...apparently Grant's parafoil collapsed from a gust of wind and he attempted to deploy a reserve chute, but at 100' from the ground, didn't have time.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Natalya

I'm a millennial, but I lived for a few years at my aunt's house in Canada where the central heating system is a wood stove. Water (for all uses) came from the gutters funneling into a cistern underground. There is a septic field out back. There is electricity and internet. There is no A/C for the summer.

I never lived anywhere without pipe water in Brazil, even though some people in the countryside still rely on ponds. Extreme cold weather here is not so common, but wood stoves for heating are still quite popular in rural areas and regarded as a cultural feature. Food prepared in a wood stove is also popular even among urban gas-station cowboys

This isn't a bad way to live. I'll admit, adapting to the cold was kinda unpleasant, but I did it and it was fine and I have no problems with it.

My hometown Porto Alegre can be somewhat extremely cold during the winter, but as long as it's not raining cats and dogs it's OK.

We also avoided things there such as paper towels.

Either the cheapest toilet paper or napkins can also serve for the very same purposes of paper towels, presumably with a lower footprint. I only buy paper towels to use at home once in a while, but it's unavoidable to use them on public WCs.

There's a clothes line and a drying rack instead of a dryer. It was fine.

I never had a dryer at home, but am seriously considering getting one because of space saving. Trust me, in my apartment it would be very useful...

Living there I had a lower carbon footprint than I do now back in the USA. There's a difference between that and living in developing world conditions, and it's more than tolerable.

Depending on where in the developing world you would compare, the footprint would be roughly the same.

Modern American culture is incredibly wasteful. People roll their eyes at reusable shopping bags or paper straws, or using hand towels instead of paper napkins, or a vegetarian diet, but why should they? It's not that hard to give up these things.

It's not a strictly-American issue. Reusable shopping bags are not uncommon in Brazil nowadays, but since many people also repurpose disposable shopping bags as garbage bags it's often hard to get rid of the habit. Some markets are now trying to push cardboard boxes as a replacement for disposable plastic bags, because it's easier for them than paying some extra taxes for waste removal or stockpiling old boxes before handing them over for recycling. Paper straws are still not so easy to find here, plus they're frequently of a much lower quality. Using hand towels at home is OK, but in other places it may become undesirable for hygienic reasons. Vegetarian diets might also face some resistence due to cultural aspects, even though sometimes an animal protein source is also perceived as "inferior". At least in Argentina, fish used to be quite a taboo, as it was frequently seen as a protein source for the poorest when the creeks surrounding Buenos Aires and its villas miseria still had some fish stock before pollution decimated it.

In the USA, where I live, right now I will say it's hard to adhere to a vegetarian diet because meat is the most abundant source of protein. When I lived in Canada there was a month where I accidentally ended up going vegetarian because it was so much easier to avoid eating meat. But it's nearly impossible here.

Besides some soybean-based products which are still the most common vegan protein sources, nowadays many vegan steaks have been made out of green pea protein. Presumably it would be cheaper and with a lower footprint to eat the grains instead of turning them into some meat analogue, and it doesn't seem so hard to find canned beans, peas or corn at most grocery stores and supermarkets.

If you go to any kind of restaurant it's unlikely they will have plant-only options, or if they do it won't include protein.

Considering that even in Brazil it's not so uncommon, it does surprise me that it would be so difficult to find vegetarian dishes with protein in the US.

Ocean problems:
F*** yeah let's fix everything. Why do we need to wash tons of fertilizer down the Mississippi each year? It causes algae blooms and kills fish which obviously then hurts coastal fishermen and their ability to make a living. Different farming practices can reduce the need for fertilizer.

Some fish-farming techniques combined with some crops (more frequently rice or lettuce) decrease the amount of Nitrogen-based fertilizers required.

We can also get by without growing so many crops for use as bio fuels. It's probably more carbon efficient to pursue vehicle electrification and general fuel economy gains. Unless of course your vehicle uses 100% biodiesel or something. But like ethanol in the gas... correct me if I'm wrong but that looks like a carbon inefficient process because now you gotta burn more fuel to do the farming of the corn that you're going to convert into ethanol, and you're taking up farmland for that purpose.

I'm into biofuels not only for the economic reasons, but also because it allows adding value to agricultural and butchering leftovers instead of simply leaving them to rot away. When it comes to ethanol, sugarcane-based has a higher energy output, but corn-based is not so negligible at all when we consider the ethanol to be more of a byproduct. The high-protein distillation grain also has a better digestibility and leads to a higher weight gain for beef cattle.

Buildings can be constructed with roofs that reflect more light back into space. This also helps you on your power bill in the summer. Sounds like a win-win to me. Put solar panels over top of parking spaces. USPS did that for their massive LA package facility. Why do all the big box stores have completely closed off roofs? You could have skylights up there to reduce the need for electric lighting during daylight hours. I did go to a grocery store with skylights in California once, why don't they do that everywhere? It's probably way cheaper to setup than solar panels would be if you want to complain about solar installation cost and complexity.

Had a skylight in the kitchen not been so useful for me, I'd have fitted some solar panels instead.

Roads ought to be made from concrete like the US Interstate system. That would reflect more light back into space than asphalt. At the same time the concrete roads have to be redone wayyy less frequently.

That's a good point. I'm sure having to detour from fewer potholes or avoiding to slam the brakes so often would increase fuel efficiency.